Union takes dept to task over coronavirus dispute

The National Education, Health and Allied Workers Union (Nehawu) in Limpopo is involved in an ugly spat with the department of basic education over the disinfection of offices after two staff members tested positive for Covid-19.

The wedge between the two comes after the department allegedly failed to disinfect all the offices two weeks after the test results of the two staffers were released.

The union claimed yesterday that the furore was precipitated by allegations that only the office of the head of the department (HOD) was fumigated. The union alleged that the department could not manage to fumigate all the other offices because of budgetary constraints.

And as a result, over 300 employees, working at the department’s provincial headquarters in Polokwane could not report for duty since Monday.

“The contentious and ill-informed decision by the Limpopo department of basic education to clean only the office of the HOD is the reason our employees refuse to go back to work,” said Nehawu’s provincial secretary Jacob Adams yesterday.

He said the union had advised the employees not to risk their lives by going back to work until their offices had been cleaned and fumigated properly.

“We have seen how many people die everyday because of this pandemic. We have also seen how our people become easily infected by the disease simply because they ignored all precautionary measures put in place. So allowing employees to go back to work would not only be dangerous, but would also be fatal,” added Adams.

A fortnight ago the department released a statement, putting it on record that its offices would be closed for a week after two staff members tested positive for coronavirus.

This, according to the statement, was aimed at giving space for the officials from the department of health to fumigate the premises.

In light of this, the department ordered all of its employees working at the head office to work from home.

But when the employees returned for duty this week, they were allegedly dissatisfied.

This after they were allegedly informed that only the office of the HOD was disinfected because the department had run out of funds to fumigate the entire building.

On Tuesday, Nehawu officials and the management were locked in a meeting at the department’s headquarters in Polokwane to try resolve the matter.

But they could not reach an agreement as the department allegedly put its foot down, claiming all offices had been fumigated and ready for use.

By noon yesterday, the union said it was going to escalate its grievance to the labour department and to the office of Limpopo Premier Stan Mathabatha, who is also head of the provincial coronavirus command council.